When a portal opens, you are supposed to enter. On "Full Tree", the new quintet and eponymous album by Swiss composer, pianist and bandleader Christoph Stiefel, all the gates, windows and hatches open from the very first moment to invite participation. No matter where you listen to the album, a big, pleasant breeze blows through the room and blows away the mental confinement of isolation from the past years. "Full Tree" is a confession of the joy of being, drawn from the abundance of life, and not least a fully grown tree full of sweet fruit, which Christoph Stiefel"s decades of work have brought to a new level of maturity. "Full Tree" is the reclamation of life for music. Christoph Stiefel reaches out with all ten fingers and the extended arms of his fellow musicians to the plump diversity of life, sucks life into himself and carries his music back into life. An organic give and take full of humility, gratitude and desire for everything that may come.